Ryan Newman’s path to the 2016 Chase is much more hard than it was immediately after Sunday night’s race at Darlington.
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On Wednesday, Newman and his Richard Childress Racing team were penalized 15 driver points and 15 owner points after the No. 31 Chevrolet failed the post-race laser inspection station measurements.
NASCAR on Wednesday also docked 15 points from Kyle Larson, but he’s already qualified for the chase. There could be a points’ penalty for both teams, which would be extremely costly in Ryan Newman’s bid to overcome one of the other winless drivers for a Chase berth. Newman will now be 22 points behind McMurray and drops to just 22 ahead of Kasey Kahne in the standings. Drivers get a three-point bonus for winning a race, a point for leading a lap and another point for leading the most laps in a given race.
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Newman was seven points out of the final qualifying spot for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. NASCAR could escalate the penalty from Darlington because of the previous infraction. NASCAR Larson was penalized 15 points and fined crew chief Chad Johnston $22,500. It’s also important to note that this isn’t Newman’s first penalty of the season. He was penalized 10 points in March for illegal brackets found on the No. 31 vehicle.
